Pet Appreciation Thread.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Nyah

I wish we could get something like that. My cat is scared of his own shadow. If I get a new pair of shoes, he looks at them like they're demons for the first few weeks, so I can't imagine he'd go anywhere near a robotic litterbox.

A friend of mine has a skittish cat like that, and her advice if Oskär turned out to be equally distrustful of the thing was to add some of the old litter into the new box, and to leave the device in 'sleep mode' indefinitely until the cat got comfortable with using it.

It has a weight and occupant sensor so it will never cycle when the cat is inside. You can also set the cycling delay from ~4-18 minutes so you can be certain that the cat will have moved on when the box finally does self-clean.

[Junglist]

I had to put one of cats down yesterday, went to bed Saturday night and everything seemed normal. I woke up Sunday and realized something was immediately wrong, brought him to the vet and he was diagnosed with Saddle Thrombus.

I had to made a quick tough decision, but it was the right one. I am just glad he was able to pass away quickly and calmly in my arms.

Just tough because how quickly it seemed to have happened to a cat that had been healthy his whole life. He was fulltime indoor cat and was only 8, just thought id have lots more time with him.

Thanfully, I still have his sister from the same litter, I just hope she will be okay.

[bigtmac19]

Originally Posted by Junglist

I had to put one of cats down yesterday, went to bed Saturday night and everything seemed normal. I woke up Sunday and realized something was immediately wrong, brought him to the vet and he was diagnosed with Saddle Thrombus.

I had to made a quick tough decision, but it was the right one. I am just glad he was able to pass away quickly and calmly in my arms.

Just tough because how quickly it seemed to have happened to a cat that had been healthy his whole life. He was fulltime indoor cat and was only 8, just thought id have lots more time with him.

Thanfully, I still have his sister from the same litter, I just hope she will be okay.

I'm so sorry for your loss. Those sudden occurrences that result in death, are so hard to bear. My last two cats both died suddenly, one at 6 and one at 11, and it was terrible. I haven't had a pet since.

[bagofpucks]

Well, about two years after our previous dog passed away and me saying I’d never get a puppy; we picked up a puppy today. We are very pro pet adoption, but we just couldn’t find a smaller dog that would be good with younger kids. It ended up a friend of ours had a perfect situation of a morkie puppy and the timing worked out and the pup is a bit older and is doing really well with crate training and house training…so we’ll see how the transition goes this week. He’s a smart little bugger, so that’s both good and bad…haha. The kids are over the moon; our 4 year old wrote “Rip is my best friend” in his doodle book on our way home, so that was super cute. CP, meet Rip! (And I hope the photo works!) Also, any good puppy book recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

[DownInFlames]

Your photo didn't work. You linked to the page instead.

He's adorable.

[bagofpucks]

Originally Posted by DownInFlames

Your photo didn't work. You linked to the page instead.

He's adorable.

Oh shoot, thank you for the help!

[NinePack]

whoops

[NinePack]

rideout memorial hospital


rideout memorial hospital




rideout memorial hospital
rideout memorial hospital



Lost one dog years ago and this pure bred red heeler came to me for free, and my other dog is getting up there in age, they get along so good. heeler is only 5 months. but just been amazing. I have always been a sucker for blue heelers, but red is awesome.

[NinePack]

too many post

[bagofpucks]

Alright, we’re 6 months into our journey with our pup and things are going pretty well. He started as a very scared pup, but he has gotten a lot more confidence. Our biggest issue is he struggles with visitors to the house. Does anyone have recommendations to help him get over these fears? Oddly, he seems fine once he meets someone a few times, but he is very barky and scared at the first introduction. We have used a one on one trainer and have some cues for him, but we haven’t had much success yet.

[Wormius]

nm

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Warning to anyone who takes their animal to a VCA vet. If you don’t agree to their “recommended” care they will strong arm you by lodging a complaint to the city who will threaten to take your pet away.

VCA are private equity owned and are scum.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/calgary/artic...senior-feline/

During the visit to the VCA Marlborough Animal Hospital, the vet recommended Nixon sign off on dental surgery for his feline, costing anywhere from $1,200 to $1,500.

Nixon was told the surgery would remove all of Leo’s teeth.

He says he worried the surgery would be risky for his 15-year-old cat, and didn’t sign off on it.

Months later, on Oct. 8, Nixon received a home visit from the Calgary Humane Society.

“I get a knock on my door from peace officers, and they ask me to commit to taking him to the to a vet in order to have him assessed and treated for dental disease,” Nixon said. “There were no X-rays done at the first consultation. I don’t know why they have this predetermined result that he already has dental disease.”

Nixon says he was handed a compliance order and told he had two weeks to comply – by Oct. 22 – or he’d face consequences.

The order states that Nixon must:

Have Leo assessed and treated by a licensed veterinarian for dental disease;
Follow through with at least one recommended treatment option to completion; and,
Contact a Calgary Humane Society peace officer once completed.

Sad state of affairs if the Humane Society are in the pocket of VCA.

For anyone who wants an actual private clinic, you can find a list of the corporate vet clinics to avoid here:
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/f0MwB/15/

[Wormius]

I stopped going to our vet before I knew they were part of that VCA profit-maxing game. Every visit was useless, but I decided to go one last time and it was the same crap. Our cat was kind of aggressive and the vet just threw up her hands and couldn’t do the exam, yet managed to give us this whole monthly prescription plan for our cat. VCA turned me off of vet clinics, but found a good one that actually isn’t scared of cats, so that was a win.

[Nyah]

That article hits home so hard for me. I had taken my 13 year old cat to a VCA a few years ago for a check up and they told me he required removal of four of his teeth. They made it clear that it was very important that this be done ASAP and that we needed to go ahead with it, so we signed off and he had his teeth pulled later that week. What they failed to take into consideration, is that our cat had hypothyroidism which had been previously diagnosed by THEM.

We found out later that this can lead to complications as in some animals, because it can slow down healing, hair & nail growth, etc. Unfortunately, this was the case with our little guy and resulted in him not healing in time when his stitches dissolved, which led to an infection in his mouth, which then led to us needed to pay them again to put him under and 'clean-up' the incisions. That led to him declining and losing a bunch of weight due to not being able to eat. The infection never went away, and we ended up paying a different vet to euthanize him a month after his initial surgery. This vet told us that the original dental operation should have been done differently due our cat's hypothyroidism, as the risks should have been known to the VCA vet.

So yeah. #### VCA. Unless you have an excellent vet though them that you know and trust, do not take your animals there. And I am beyond disappointed that the Humane Society is involved in the story above.

[PaperBagger'14]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Warning to anyone who takes their animal to a VCA vet. If you don’t agree to their “recommended” care they will strong arm you by lodging a complaint to the city who will threaten to take your pet away.

VCA are private equity owned and are scum.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/calgary/artic...senior-feline/






Sad state of affairs if the Humane Society are in the pocket of VCA.

For anyone who wants an actual private clinic, you can find a list of the corporate vet clinics to avoid here:
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/f0MwB/15/

I can say with 100% certainty the humane society is not in the back pocket of VCA, in fact you can look up donations made to CHS as they are a non profit who runs solely on donations (including their peace officers). There is no “funding” from private corporations or any level of government.

Secondly here is that this guys cat has had multiple veterinarians recommend a dental procedure for his cat, the article mentions both VCA and non VCA vets. That would indicate this cat needs more treatment than a couple rounds of pills.

Thirdly the vets are obligated to report cases of neglect according to the animal protection act and to keep their licensing with the ABVMA. It isn’t something taken lightly at all, and a vet could lose their license to practice because of it. If this cats teeth are potentially rotting so bad that the recommendation is full extraction, it would be neglectful to not comply.

[Johnny Makarov]

You should watch the 5th estate doc on them. they are deplorable and no one should EVER use them!

[PaperBagger'14]

My wife pointed out a very misleading part of the story. The compliance order from the peace officers state:

Have Leo assessed and treated by a licensed veterinarian for dental disease;
Follow through with at least one recommended treatment option to completion; and,
Contact a Calgary Humane Society peace officer once completed.

This would mean that if the cat was assessed for dental disease by a different vet and it was determined surgery was not required and different treatment would work, and if he followed that treatment, the compliance order would be lifted.

[Sr. Mints]

I'm telling you guys, Riverstone Vet in Olds and Sundre is amazing. And they're a mixed practice (small animals like dogs and cats, and up to horses and cows, etc.) so according to the vet, there's about a 0% chance VCA would acquire them as that's not their game.

Worth the drive for the price alone. Dr. Curt Luzi is great.